Google is trying to rule the world. Slowly, the Internet giant is staking a claim in as many fields as it can within a relatively short amount of time. 5 years ago, who would have thought Google would end up becoming a verb, an icon, a Wal-Mart, a political power-broker, and a standard employees wishfully hold their employers to. Emphasis on 'wishfully,' unless you are in my generation. While most working Americans would love to work for a place that even flirted with the Google benchmark of employee-spoiling, they can only wish for such a dream.
My generation does not wish. We DEMAND a Google in our lives. We believe we are entitled, or at the very least, deserving, of the pampering, the freedom, the pride that we are changing the world with everything we do, the belief that we are living a life of all-encompassing purpose (the "ideal life", whatever that means), that Google employees have. If we can't get that, then we move on from job to job until we find a life path we are happy with.
This would be a reach of a conclusion if it weren't for all the companies echoing the pain of its reality. Employers continually voice their concern and annoyance over the high turnover rate with their employees in the 18-25ish age range. The main reason for leaving: dissatisfaction at the workplace. Not management style, growth opportunities, unproductive work environment, but dissatisfaction. They claim they do not LOVE what they do.
Any working American wants to love what they do, no doubt, but the generational gap is evident by the priority satisfaction of work has over other things. Most older working Americans would value stability, growth, loyalty, and compensation at least at the same level as satisfaction, if not all of them being much higher on the list.
My generation not only values satisfaction at the workplace, but everywhere else in our lives. Our hobbies, our friends, our shows, our movies, our toys, are geared toward satisfaction, albeit quick and momentary. We are quick to buy the new iPod or drool over the iPhone. We prefer to hang out, rather than 'date', as studies have shown, dismissing the amount of time and energy invested in cultivating a dating partner, and instead going toward the ease and detachment of the hang out with friends of both sexes. Starbucks has made a good amount of their money counting on this idea, making coffee shops hangouts again where people go 'get a cup of coffee,' with implications ranging from getting to know someone to reading with a friend to catching up. Our movies tend to be made for quick laughs or quick thrills, along with quick jumps to the top and then to the bottom of the box office list. We love series that have a clear ending (dating New York or Flava Flav, picking the new pop star/model, or finding out if they break out of prison...again). Satisfaction should be quick and unattached.
The reason for this new generational gap can never be completely ascertained, as none of the previous have been. Generation Xers were once considered the prime example of anti-establishment types that were too unhappy with their situation that they just gave up, accepted the 'life and growing up sucks' mantra, and conformed...as non-conformists. But now, with the affluence they are learning to love, they are becoming the very yuppies they once loathed. The 80's yuppie is now the Gen Xer archetype, with a few caveats. They loved The Police, and religiously nodded along to 'Reality Bites', and now they are back to loving the new Police, Coldplay and Norah Jones, and try to keep Winona Ryder's career afloat. Baby boomers told you to never trust anyone over 30, only to go against their motto by cementing their 60's identity into a life-long philosophy (e.g. the 58 year-old hippie who composts anything withing eyesight, the 62 year-old former Nixonite, now Michael Savage faithful, or anywhere in between).
Generational gaps can be better understood by looking at their parting point and how those differences were nurtured. In my case, my generation has been exposed to many of the same circumstances. We don't have a Great War to look back to, or a Great Depression which we all lived through; we don't have a Vietnam War to side with or against, or a consumer culture to protest or fall in love with. We have accepted the consumer culture more than any other generation. Our war is in Iraq, but our differences were not drawn because of it, but before it, and it is a war as detached from the home soil as any we've had. We have suffered through a boom and a bust, but they have been only one of the reasons we differ in worldviews. As a whole, we are a generation of perfectionists, narcissists, and 'idealists,' in a very different way than any other generation before us. Comparatively, we are the best generation with the worst state of the world.
The most often used word in the 80's was 'me' or 'I'. 'I' was the favorite letter, and how most of the sentences began. This new-found importance of self-worth was passed on to the children born after 1983, when the true 80's culture was accepted. (I once heard that the 90's did not begin on January 1, 1990, but in 1991, when Nirvana's 'Nevermind' took down Michael Jackson's 'Dangerous' from the no.1 spot on the Billboard charts). A movement of constant encouragement was in full swing in childhood development. Progressive education, with its student-centric approach, where children are not 'taught', Per Se, but helped to find their voice, was becoming widely embraced. "You can do anything you set your mind to" was what parents were encouraged to say to their children by public service announcements and psychiatrists. Sesame Street, and later Barney, earned their own gold stars by reminding children they were 'special,' they could do/be anything, and imagination was your only limit. Limitless potential was adopted by most of American parents, and children liked it...for the time being.
Then they grew. We grew. The world ended up being much less interested in our potential, and much more interested in old ideologies, traditions, and rivalries. The early 90's were ruled by the Gen Xers. They had their short war in Iraq.. They had their bust in the 80's, and were now years away from their boom. We watched the 90's innovator sail the tidal wave of quick profits and overnight fortune. The Internet was handed over to us, and we began to tinker with it like our Legos. By the time the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers recognized the importance of the Internet, we had already customized it to our wants and needs. The boom then became a bust. The bubble blew, and the millionaires were once again human. Young humans. Again, we watched our older brothers and sisters fall a precipitous fall. The 80's yuppie and the 90's innovator paved a path of internal dissatisfaction and failed dreams for the 2000's instant star to exploit.
Beginning with the Y2K bug, the year 2000 brought a new face to our national conscience. It was an ephemeral one. It was unstable, momentarily recognizable, and self-effacing. As Time proclaimed a year or so ago, "You" were the person of the year. Once again we refocused our attention on the individual, but in a different way than in the 80's or 90's. We were not that much interested in social stature and business cards, or innovation and start ups. Our televisions were dominated by American Idol, reality shows of all odd sorts, the ADD-happy '24', and the demise of the traditional sitcom. Innovations such as Google, YouTube, Myspace, and the iPod were momentary satisfactions, but also star-makers. Instant fame could be granted easier than ever before. For better or worse, an embarrassing or awe-inspiring bit of content could make you a celebrity, thanks to YouTube. As Andy Warhol predicted, it seemed that everyone would eventually have their 15 minutes of fame. But what sort of fame-seeking was this?
It feels like another side of capitalism. Commodification is back in the picture. It never left, but from time to time it becomes a blinding, brash light. Greed is a proven associate of commodification: it is easier to own everything when everything is ownable. This was the case with Reagan's America and Clinton's America. A good country was a greedy, thriving country. It is different now. The dream is not so palpable. Mythical as it is, the American Dream has always felt within reach. Even when people fell reaching for it, the notion of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and trying again was a badge of honor.
My generation does not believe that anymore. We want our American Dream now, and it should be showcased on American Idol. This is not to say we all seek celebrity status, or our record deal, but our fame is sought for fame's sake, our ideal life for the sake of living an ideal life. We believe we deserve it. Many have already called us the Entitlement Generation, because we feel we are owed something as soon as we enter the 'real' world. We are owed because we are 'special,' and how dare you not recognize our potential. We are meant to be presidents, stars, and geniuses. Or so we were told. Now we feel like it might have been of an exaggeration, one of those things your high school coach would say, that if you give 110% you can beat the private school from up-state. We appreciate the effort and encouragement, but now no sort of encouragement can help us cope. We are now, because of this enthusiastic coaching, perfectionists.
This generation is not full of narcissists letting everyone know of their existence, but a generation that believes in the 'ideal' everything. An ideal us, an ideal job, an ideal life. If we were being told the truth when we were young, this is all attainable. The more we find out it is not that easy, the more frustrated we become.
We are perfectionists, and as such, we can never be fully satisfied. Perfectionists have momentary satisfactions. This is so because we believe in being good, but more in being better. There is always room for improvement. Perfectionists are privileged because of an ingrained ambition in regards to almost everything. Perfectionists are doomed because we will live a life for a goal, not the process.
Unfortunately, we were born into a world that is not perfect. In fact, it might be at its most unstable: global warming, terrorism, tribal conflict, extreme poverty, nuclear proliferation, recessions, rampant corruption, school shootings, drug trafficking, homophobia, xenophobia, et al. How do we fit in this imperfect world? Are we the middle child of history, with their own high ambitions, but always crying for the attention that is passed over to the older brother or younger sister. Are all these inventions, like social networking and Google, just a way for us to make even tacit contact with the whole world, and make sense of our place in it? Who are we, and why are we so special?
I am not perfect. No one is. Both those things bug me.
lhp
Any working American wants to love what they do, no doubt, but the generational gap is evident by the priority satisfaction of work has over other things. Most older working Americans would value stability, growth, loyalty, and compensation at least at the same level as satisfaction, if not all of them being much higher on the list.
My generation not only values satisfaction at the workplace, but everywhere else in our lives. Our hobbies, our friends, our shows, our movies, our toys, are geared toward satisfaction, albeit quick and momentary. We are quick to buy the new iPod or drool over the iPhone. We prefer to hang out, rather than 'date', as studies have shown, dismissing the amount of time and energy invested in cultivating a dating partner, and instead going toward the ease and detachment of the hang out with friends of both sexes. Starbucks has made a good amount of their money counting on this idea, making coffee shops hangouts again where people go 'get a cup of coffee,' with implications ranging from getting to know someone to reading with a friend to catching up. Our movies tend to be made for quick laughs or quick thrills, along with quick jumps to the top and then to the bottom of the box office list. We love series that have a clear ending (dating New York or Flava Flav, picking the new pop star/model, or finding out if they break out of prison...again). Satisfaction should be quick and unattached.
The reason for this new generational gap can never be completely ascertained, as none of the previous have been. Generation Xers were once considered the prime example of anti-establishment types that were too unhappy with their situation that they just gave up, accepted the 'life and growing up sucks' mantra, and conformed...as non-conformists. But now, with the affluence they are learning to love, they are becoming the very yuppies they once loathed. The 80's yuppie is now the Gen Xer archetype, with a few caveats. They loved The Police, and religiously nodded along to 'Reality Bites', and now they are back to loving the new Police, Coldplay and Norah Jones, and try to keep Winona Ryder's career afloat. Baby boomers told you to never trust anyone over 30, only to go against their motto by cementing their 60's identity into a life-long philosophy (e.g. the 58 year-old hippie who composts anything withing eyesight, the 62 year-old former Nixonite, now Michael Savage faithful, or anywhere in between).
Generational gaps can be better understood by looking at their parting point and how those differences were nurtured. In my case, my generation has been exposed to many of the same circumstances. We don't have a Great War to look back to, or a Great Depression which we all lived through; we don't have a Vietnam War to side with or against, or a consumer culture to protest or fall in love with. We have accepted the consumer culture more than any other generation. Our war is in Iraq, but our differences were not drawn because of it, but before it, and it is a war as detached from the home soil as any we've had. We have suffered through a boom and a bust, but they have been only one of the reasons we differ in worldviews. As a whole, we are a generation of perfectionists, narcissists, and 'idealists,' in a very different way than any other generation before us. Comparatively, we are the best generation with the worst state of the world.
The most often used word in the 80's was 'me' or 'I'. 'I' was the favorite letter, and how most of the sentences began. This new-found importance of self-worth was passed on to the children born after 1983, when the true 80's culture was accepted. (I once heard that the 90's did not begin on January 1, 1990, but in 1991, when Nirvana's 'Nevermind' took down Michael Jackson's 'Dangerous' from the no.1 spot on the Billboard charts). A movement of constant encouragement was in full swing in childhood development. Progressive education, with its student-centric approach, where children are not 'taught', Per Se, but helped to find their voice, was becoming widely embraced. "You can do anything you set your mind to" was what parents were encouraged to say to their children by public service announcements and psychiatrists. Sesame Street, and later Barney, earned their own gold stars by reminding children they were 'special,' they could do/be anything, and imagination was your only limit. Limitless potential was adopted by most of American parents, and children liked it...for the time being.
Then they grew. We grew. The world ended up being much less interested in our potential, and much more interested in old ideologies, traditions, and rivalries. The early 90's were ruled by the Gen Xers. They had their short war in Iraq.. They had their bust in the 80's, and were now years away from their boom. We watched the 90's innovator sail the tidal wave of quick profits and overnight fortune. The Internet was handed over to us, and we began to tinker with it like our Legos. By the time the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers recognized the importance of the Internet, we had already customized it to our wants and needs. The boom then became a bust. The bubble blew, and the millionaires were once again human. Young humans. Again, we watched our older brothers and sisters fall a precipitous fall. The 80's yuppie and the 90's innovator paved a path of internal dissatisfaction and failed dreams for the 2000's instant star to exploit.
Beginning with the Y2K bug, the year 2000 brought a new face to our national conscience. It was an ephemeral one. It was unstable, momentarily recognizable, and self-effacing. As Time proclaimed a year or so ago, "You" were the person of the year. Once again we refocused our attention on the individual, but in a different way than in the 80's or 90's. We were not that much interested in social stature and business cards, or innovation and start ups. Our televisions were dominated by American Idol, reality shows of all odd sorts, the ADD-happy '24', and the demise of the traditional sitcom. Innovations such as Google, YouTube, Myspace, and the iPod were momentary satisfactions, but also star-makers. Instant fame could be granted easier than ever before. For better or worse, an embarrassing or awe-inspiring bit of content could make you a celebrity, thanks to YouTube. As Andy Warhol predicted, it seemed that everyone would eventually have their 15 minutes of fame. But what sort of fame-seeking was this?
It feels like another side of capitalism. Commodification is back in the picture. It never left, but from time to time it becomes a blinding, brash light. Greed is a proven associate of commodification: it is easier to own everything when everything is ownable. This was the case with Reagan's America and Clinton's America. A good country was a greedy, thriving country. It is different now. The dream is not so palpable. Mythical as it is, the American Dream has always felt within reach. Even when people fell reaching for it, the notion of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and trying again was a badge of honor.
My generation does not believe that anymore. We want our American Dream now, and it should be showcased on American Idol. This is not to say we all seek celebrity status, or our record deal, but our fame is sought for fame's sake, our ideal life for the sake of living an ideal life. We believe we deserve it. Many have already called us the Entitlement Generation, because we feel we are owed something as soon as we enter the 'real' world. We are owed because we are 'special,' and how dare you not recognize our potential. We are meant to be presidents, stars, and geniuses. Or so we were told. Now we feel like it might have been of an exaggeration, one of those things your high school coach would say, that if you give 110% you can beat the private school from up-state. We appreciate the effort and encouragement, but now no sort of encouragement can help us cope. We are now, because of this enthusiastic coaching, perfectionists.
This generation is not full of narcissists letting everyone know of their existence, but a generation that believes in the 'ideal' everything. An ideal us, an ideal job, an ideal life. If we were being told the truth when we were young, this is all attainable. The more we find out it is not that easy, the more frustrated we become.
We are perfectionists, and as such, we can never be fully satisfied. Perfectionists have momentary satisfactions. This is so because we believe in being good, but more in being better. There is always room for improvement. Perfectionists are privileged because of an ingrained ambition in regards to almost everything. Perfectionists are doomed because we will live a life for a goal, not the process.
Unfortunately, we were born into a world that is not perfect. In fact, it might be at its most unstable: global warming, terrorism, tribal conflict, extreme poverty, nuclear proliferation, recessions, rampant corruption, school shootings, drug trafficking, homophobia, xenophobia, et al. How do we fit in this imperfect world? Are we the middle child of history, with their own high ambitions, but always crying for the attention that is passed over to the older brother or younger sister. Are all these inventions, like social networking and Google, just a way for us to make even tacit contact with the whole world, and make sense of our place in it? Who are we, and why are we so special?
I am not perfect. No one is. Both those things bug me.
lhp
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